Broken Key

[Jon Page]

Ralph,
The sturdiest repair woud be to epoxy the key back together
and then lay a piece of fiberglass cloth on the side. Second
choice for reinforcement would be veneer, with the grain
running horizontally of course.

The insure resetting the key in the lateral and longitudinal planes,
use the two adjacent keys as splints. Align the bottoms and clamp.
A piece of waxed paper between them is a good idea.
This way there will be no problem with key height or rubbing.

Easy,
Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At 11:06 AM 11/14/98 EST, you wrote:
>I have a client who owns an 18 year old Ivers And Pond upright  that has a
>broken key. It is broken at the balance rail hole and has been repaired by
>another person. This person glued the parts back together and glued/nailed a
>portion of white plastic keytop along one side of the key as a reinforcement.
>This "reinforcement" has cracked under the strain of playing and I am left
>with the repair job. The question is, would Weldbond be the better glue
choice
>for the repair? And would a piece of ivory keytop (of which I have some)
serve
>as an adequte reinforcement or would it be better to use thin veneer. This is
>an instrument that is in rather poor condition but it's all the family has
and
>can afford.
>
>Thanks,
>Ralph Black
>Nashville
>
>